


12 Days of Shipmas

by DeckofDragons



Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: Alone During Christmas, Christmas Confession of Love, Christmas Decorations, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Lights, Christmas Morning, Christmas Party, Christmas Shopping, Christmas Tree, Christmas prompts, Christmas proposal, F/M, Gift Exchange, Holiday Homesickness, M/M, Visiting Partner's Family for the Holidays, one shots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-18 02:19:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 9,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16986273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeckofDragons/pseuds/DeckofDragons
Summary: 12 one shots full of Christmas related fluff with 12 different ships.





	1. Pyro/Sniper - Visiting Family for the Holidays

**Author's Note:**

> I challenged myself to come up with 12 Christmas prompts and 12 different ships because I wanted to do a 12 Days of Ships for TF2. I have succeeded, yay
> 
> The chapter titles will be the ship and the prompt I came up with, so if you're looking for a particular ship it should be easy to find. :)

It was cold and wet outside, not quite snowing so it was just miserable. Sniper was already dreading the thought of stepping outside to go to the base for supper later. But he was warm and cozy in the camper for now. Just one more week of this and then they’d have off for the holidays and he’d be off to Australia to spend it with his parents.

Speaking of the holidays… His eyes shifted to Pyro who was sitting next to him, playing with a Rubik’s cube, almost childlike with his extreme focus on it. He’d taken his suit and mask off because he was comfortable here in Sniper’s van now, no else was likely to see him out here.

“You got any family?” Sniper asked.

Pyro looked up at him. “You mean other than you and the rest of the team?” Oh, Sniper hadn’t known Pyro thought of them like that, it was… sweet.

“Yeah, other than us.”

“Then no.” The tone of his reply implied he didn’t want to talk about it. “Why?”

“Just wondering what you’re plans are for the holidays.”

Pyro shrugged. “Don’t have any.”

Suddenly dreading the answer, Sniper almost didn’t want to ask but… “What do you normally do?”

“Nothing.” Pyro said it like it wasn’t a big deal and to him it probably wasn’t. He was odd like that sometimes. “I like the lights everyone puts up though, they’re pretty. So after everyone else leaves the base I like to go to town and look at them sometimes.”

“You… can’t drive though, can you?” Sniper had never seen him drive. Though he’d never shown any desire to, letting other people do it instead.

“Nope, I walk.”

“Ah mate, that’s…” ‘sad’ was what Sniper wanted to say but… Pyro didn’t seem to think it was sad. But he couldn’t believe he’d never inquired about this before, that no one had. “You uh… want to like… come with me this year instead?”

Pyro gasped. “You mean go to Australia with you?”

“Uh… yep and visit my parents.” Sniper should probably clear this idea with his parents first but… he couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Pyro to spend another Christmas alone at the base. And it was about time his parents meet his partner anyway, right? He’d just have to call ahead and make sure they didn’t light any candles.

Pyro put down the cube so he could clap his hands. He then threw his arms around Sniper, pulling him into an excited hug.

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes’ then.” If Sniper’s parents didn’t like it then too bad, they’d just have to suck it up.


	2. Spy/Sniper - Christmas Shopping

“What should I get Spy for Christmas?”

Scout looked up from his doodling. “That’s seriously what you came in here to ask me?”

“He’s your dad,” Sniper replied, leaning back against the wall and trying not to look at the mess in Scout’s room. Sniper wasn’t the cleanest of people but… how did Scout live like this?

“True, but in case you forgot, I’ve only known that for a few months. And since you joined the team before I did, you’ve actually known him _longer_ than I have on top of the fact that he’s your boyfriend so if anything I should be asking _you_ what to get him Christmas.”

Sniper almost flinched. All that was true, making this suddenly awkward. “Sorry mate.”

“Eh, it’s whatever.” Scout shrugged. “We’ve worked through most of our issues and stuff.” Meaning they’d probably had like one or two awkward conversations about it and decided to never speak of it again and just have everything be fine between them. Not the best way of handling things but… if it worked for them then more power to them. “But like… I don’t know man. I’m just getting him a mug and drawing him a picture for a gift, that’s what I do for the rest of the rest my family members. So just… get him something you think he’d like.”

“I… don’t know what that would be though.” If Sniper had had an idea he wouldn’t have come to Scout for help. Spy was so picky about what he wore and what cigarettes he smoked, what could Sniper possibly get him that he would both enjoy and didn’t already have?

“Look dude, I’m sure he’ll like whatever you get him. So don’t worry about it too much, ‘kay?”

Sniper sighed. “Kay.” He’d think of something soon… hopefully.

 

It was a stuffed crab and… it was cute. Would it make a good gift though? Spy liked crabs, didn’t he? He’d said that he did once, right? Well actually more than once, he’d gotten drunk one time and had told Sniper all about it. So… fuck it, Sniper was out of ideas and rapidly running out of time to come up with something good.

He strode into the store and took one of the little crabs off the shelf. He also got a little box and a roll of wrapping paper before heading to the cashier to pay for it all.

Later in his camper van, he put the little crab in the box and wrapped it up. His wrapping skills left much to be desired but it would do. He’d forgotten to get ‘to and from’ tags though so he wrote on the wrapping paper itself using a marker, ‘ **TO SPY** **FROM SNIPER** ’.

 

“Oh, thank you.” Spy showed genuine surprise when Sniper handed him the little wrapped box.

“You can open it now or wait ‘till Christmas, either way’s fine.” Sniper would be leaving tomorrow to spend the holiday with his parents as he did every year. He’d have invited Spy to come too but… he wasn’t ready to hear what his parents might have to say about him dating another professional assassin and an older man to boot. Maybe next year.

“I got you a gift too actually, I was going to give to you tomorrow morning before you left but… now’s a good a time as any, right? Hold on, I’ll get it.” Spy turned away and went to his desk to pull out a gift-wrapped box. It was wrapped much more neatly than Sniper’s and even had a bow on it, it was slightly bigger too. “We can open them at the same time, if you like,” Spy said, handing it to Sniper.

“Uh… sure, thanks.” Sniper lifted the box to his ear and gave it a quick shake. It wasn’t heavy and there was no rattling sound from within, meaning the gift was soft or padded well. “You first though.”

“All right then.” Spy ripped the wrapping paper off, tossing it into his little trashcan before opening the box. He smiled and even laughed a little as he pulled the little crab out.

“You like it?” Sniper tried and failed to keep his nervousness out of his voice. But this was the first year he’d gotten Spy a gift that was actually supposed to mean something.

“I love it.” Spy smiled at him, seemingly genuinely pleased about such a simple silly gift. “Open yours now.”

Sniper obeyed. Hopefully it wasn’t something super fancy or expensive else he’d feel cheap. After removing the bow, he careful ripped the paper and pried the lid off to pull out the box’s contents. It was… a stuffed ostrich. That… was not what he’d expected.

“Like it?” Spy asked with a smirk.

“Yeah, yeah I do,” Sniper replied, a small laugh bubbling its way to the surface. He never would’ve expected Spy of all people to get him something like this, it was a nice surprise. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome and thank you too.” Spy leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. “I actually wasn’t sure what to get you, then I saw that in a toy store and it made me think of you. So… I’m glad you like it.”

“Heh, that’s basically how it was for me too.” It was pure luck that thing had turned out as well as they did. Sniper would take it though, he was no stranger to accepting what luck had to offer him.


	3. Engineer/Spy - Alone for Christmas

It was snowing outside, snowflakes drifting gently to ground to form a thing layer of white that probably wouldn’t last the day depending on how warm it got later. It was pretty but… that’s it, nothing special, just pretty. Maybe it would even last until tomorrow, making it a white Christmas, those were supposed to be special, right?

Spy sighed as he turned his back to the window to face the empty common room. Everyone else had left the base more than a week ago to visit family, their home town, or do something else for the holidays. Spy had enjoyed the solitude at first but… it was too quiet.

He sat back at the table to finish his breakfast, interrupted by the sight of the snow falling outside. Normally during breakfast, the morning people of the team would chat about stuff. The absence of background noise left Spy with little appetite but he forced himself to finish anyway.

There was a sound from outside, like a car pulling up. Spy shot to his feet, pulling his butterfly knife out and flicking it open in one smooth movement. He activated his invis-watch, giving his cloak a second or two to set in before approaching and looking out the window again.

It was Engie’s truck and Engie was climbing out of it. He was supposed to be in Texas, what was he doing back here? Was he an enemy Spy perhaps? … Possible, not super likely since the truck couldn’t be faked and Engie had outfitted it with more than enough security to ensure it couldn’t be stolen, he was peculiar about that type of thing. _And_ he had a key to the base’s backdoor, allowing him to enter directly into the common room. Meaning the _only_ way it could be an enemy was if they’d killed Engie, which wasn’t likely. Not to mention they were on cease fire, neither team had _ever_ broken that truce before.

“Howdy,” Engie called out as he shut the door behind himself. “You in here Spy?”

Spy let his cloak fall and Engie snapped around with a frightened look on his face that morphed into a smile when he spotted Spy. “Howdy partner.”

“Howdy,” Spy replied as he flicked his knife closed and slipped it back into his pocket. “Why are you here?”

“I heard from Miss Pauling that you was fixing to spend Christmas alone. I couldn’t allow that so here I am.”

“That is unnecessary but… I suppose you’re welcome here.” It’s not like Spy could turn him away after he drove all the way back here. “What about your plans?”

“Well, I ain’t got any family left so I ain’t missing anything other than my home town. It gets kind of lonely at my old place, especially this time of year so I ain’t really missing nothing.”

“All right then,” Spy said with a shrug, trying to hide how pleased he was that Engie had come all the way back for him.

“In hindsight I should’ve invited you to come along with me but I thought you’d be going back to France or something like you normally do. Why didn’t you?”

“Had some stuff I needed to take care of here.” And he just hadn’t been in the mood to bother with all the hassle of traveling during this time of year. He didn’t have any family in France and every year he went back everything had changed even more than the year before, his hometown had become barely recognizable, making him feel old.

“Let’s spend Christmas together than, huh? That’s what couples are supposed to do anyway, right?”

“Yes,” Spy said with a sigh as he took Engie’s ungloved hand in his own and lifted it to kiss his knuckles. “Thanks for coming.”

Engie gave him a slightly flustered smiled. “Anytime partner, love you.”

“I love you too.” Christmas wouldn’t be so lonely after all.


	4. Heavy/Medic - Christmas Decorations

Heavy paused as he strode into the common room. They’re were boxes and boxes of Christmas decorations piled up on the card table. Engie was just walking in with another box, Pyro behind him, carrying another.

“I think that about does it,” Engie said as he and Pyro placed their boxes with the others. He then turned his attention to Heavy. “Howdy.”

“Hello,” Heavy replied. “Is lot of boxes.”

“Yeah, we may have gone a little overboard. But it’s Christmas, so it’s fine. We uh… could use some help though.”

“Heavy can help.” Heavy had nothing else to do this morning anyway and he liked decorating for Christmas.

“Thanks, appreciate it. Just grab a box and… start wherever you like. We should have enough stuff to make most of if not all of the base ready for Christmas.”

Heavy strode over to the table and scooped up three boxes. He could’ve carried more but they were big enough to be awkward and three would probably be enough for the area he wanted to decorate.

 

“What are you doing?”

Heavy turned around to see Medic standing in the doorway, holding a cup of coffee. He’d slept until almost noon.

“Decorating,” Heavy answered as he went back to his self-appointed task. He’d started in Medic’s office and went through, decorating the whole infirmary, and was close to finishing up here in Medic’s lab at which point he’d be done. He’d been hoping Medic wouldn’t come until he’d finished but whatever.

“It looks nice. You do this all yourself?”

“In infirmary, yes. Engie, Scout, Pyro, and Demo decorating other parts of base.” Heavy had had to go back to grab a fourth box of decorations at which point he’d seen that Engie and Pyro had recruited Scout and Demo to help too. The whole base was going to be ready for Christmas in no time.

“Thank you but… can I ask why?”

“Wanted to make Doctor happy. Is nice thing to wake up to, yes?”

“Yeah. You forgot something though.”

Heavy turned around to see that Medic had pulled the mistletoe out of the box of decorations. “Was going to put that up last, wait for you to come in.”

Medic smiled at him. “Just pretend things turned out the way you planned then.”

Heavy walked over, took the mistletoe from him and kissed him. Medic wrapped his arms around his neck, pulling closer.

“Yo Doc… nope, never mind.”

They jerked apart to see Scout had come in and was already turning to leave. They burst out laughing as the door slammed shut.

“You’d think he’d eventually learn to knock,” Medic said, still laughing.

“Maybe one day.”

“Now, where we?” Medic said before wrapping his arms around Heavy’s neck again, pulling him in another kiss. Turns out Heavy would have to finish decorating the lab later.


	5. Soldier/Zhanna - Christmas Lights

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was my first time truly writing these two.

“And this is where I brought down a tank with my bare fists,” Solider said, gesturing to the area around them. There were certainly remnants of battle everywhere, rusted bits of robot and big gouges in the ground left by explosives. There was even what looked like the remains of a tank.

Zhanna nodded, letting Soldier tell his tale about the tank. She didn’t care if it was true not, she loved it all the same. This whole tour was wonderful, sometime in the future she’d have to show Solider her old stomping grounds in Russia and share her own tales of battle that had gone down there, most of them involving bears.

The sun was setting behind them, darkness rapidly setting in. It was somewhat alleviated by the slow appearance of stars above them, the tiny sliver of the moon soon joining it. There was another light source though, a much closer one. It was coming from the town of Tuefort, a short distance away. It was too far away to tell what was going on though.

“What’s happening there?” Zhanna asked, pointing.

Solider turned his head to look, scratching his head through his helmet. “Lights.”

“Let’s go look.” Zhanna grabbed his hand and took off at a sprint. He stumbled a bit but quickly matched her speed.

They ran long and hard until even they were breathing heavy. They kept going though, the town and lights growing ever closer, until they screeched to a halt at the town’s entrance.

Unlike the last time Zhanna had visited this place, there were colourful lights and baubles _everywhere_. Seemingly every building was decorated and lit up with strings and strings of coloured lights. The wreaths and tinsel everywhere reflected some of that light, making everything look even brighter and more colourful.

“Ooh, pretty,” Zhanna said with an almost gasp. It was one of the prettiest things she’d ever seen. Back home no one ever decorated like this for the holiday.

“Good job decorating maggots,” Soldier shouted in the general direction of some townie passersby. “You all deserve a medal.” He then took her hand again and started leading her deeper into town.

She followed along wordlessly, enraptured by the pretty lights. Soldier even titled his helmet back to get a better look at them.

In the center of town, the busiest part of town, was a massive Christmas tree. It was lit up even brighter and more colourfully than the town itself. There were even prop presents placed under it, all wrapped in multicoloured shiny wrapping paper with neat little bows on top.

“Love you,” Zhanna said before hugging Solider and giving him a quick kiss on the check. “Thank you for showing me this.”

“Love you too,” he replied. It was the greatest date he’d ever taken her on.


	6. Sniper/Scout - Christmas Proposal

“Wake up, it’s Christmas.”

Even if was Christmas, Sniper wasn’t ready to get out of bed yet. He was comfortable and warm, he didn’t want to move let alone get out of bed. But not surprisingly, when he didn’t move, he got wacked with a pillow.

“Wake up,” Scout said, hitting him with the pillow again. “How can you sleep in on _Christmas_?”

Sniper groaned and caught the pillow next time it came down. “It’d be a lot easier if you let me.”

Scout huffed but relinquished the pillow when his half-hearted attempt at tugging it back failed. “I got a super special gift for you so you got to get up so we can eat and then do gift stuff.” He leaned in to kiss Sniper’s cheek, an unfair move. “Please, I love you.” An even more unfair move.

Sniper sat up with sigh. There’d be no going back to sleep with Scout around. “Love you too.” He dragged himself out of bed and got ready for the day. All the while Scout, who was already dressed and ready to go, watched, practically dancing with anticipation.

They exited out to the living and… it was still practically dark outside. The sun was just starting rise. No wonder Sniper was so tired.

“Why the bloody hell did you wake me up this earlier?” He snapped, turning to face Scout.

Scout flinched. “Sorry. I just… wanted to do this before your parents got up. The kind of gift I got is one of those like… ones you don’t give with other people around typically. I _was_ planning on waiting until tonight to give it to you, after they’d gone to bed but… I’d fucking die if I had to wait that long, especially after how long I’ve already waited.” There was excitement on his face but the shifting of his weight from foot to foot wasn’t excitement but nervousness.

Sniper sighed, rubbing his temple. “All right, I need coffee first though.” It was clearly something important – what he couldn’t even begin to imagine – but that meant he needed to be awake for it.

“Of course, I already made coffee and breakfast.” Scout led the way to the kitchen where it was already all laid out. It was eggs and toast and by some miracle of miracles none of it was burnt too bad. Even the coffee had been brewed right, a surprise considering Scout didn’t drink coffee.

“Thanks,” Sniper muttered as they settled down at the table.

Scout ate his own breakfast rather quickly. He didn’t talk much either, unusual for him, and he only shot Sniper the occasional glance before looking away.

“You okay?” Sniper asked when Scout’s odd behaviour accumulated into him standing up to start pacing after putting his plate in the sink.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said with a smile, sounding genuine despite the obvious untruth of that statement. “I’m just excited about Christmas and stuff.”

Sniper frowned but if Scout didn’t want to talk about something it was nigh on impossible to get him to do so until he was ready to. “When you’d get up this morning?”

“Uh… I don’t remember. I really didn’t get much sleep last night at all.” He _had_ been fidgeting last night, more than usual. Sniper had chalked that up to hype for Christmas the next day though, not whatever was currently making him as nervous as a kitten in a room full of rocking chairs.

Needing to get the bottom of this, Sniper quickly finished his breakfast and coffee. “Right so, what’s this all about?” he said once everything had been put in the sink.

“Hold on, I’ll go get it.” Scout ran out off the room at top speed. He turned a few seconds later, still running at top speed, with a present, a rather large one. It was wrapped in snowman wrapping paper and had a big bow on top. Scout skidded to a halt in front of Sniper. “Here,” he said holding it out. “Open it.”

Sniper took the box and carefully undid the bow followed by the wrapping paper. Inside was… another wrapped box, slightly smaller than the first. “Are you really playing this game?”

Scout let out a nervous laugh, not looking at Sniper and leaning one hand awkwardly on the kitchen counter. “Yep, got to have my fun somehow. But uh… there really is a for reals present in there though.” If it wasn’t for how nervous he was, Sniper might not have believed him.

So with a resigned sigh, he unwrapped that box too. There was of course another one inside that and another inside that and so and so on, getting progressively smaller. Scout’s nervousness seemed to grow with every new box Sniper pulled out. He wanted to comfort him but needed to find out what this was first, it was what was making him so nervous after all.

Sniper opened yet _another_ box, a small one this time – where did Scout find so many boxes? – and dumped its contents into his hand. It was another wrapped box but… it wasn’t shaped the same, its top was rounded. Peeling the wrapping paper off revealed a little black box underneath… it looked an _awful_ lot like a ring box.

He flipped it open and lo and behold, it held a ring. “Is this a…” he looked back up at Scout who was fidgeting more than ever, looking like he was on the verge of running away. “… an uh… wedding ring?”

“Uh… yes,” Scout replied with a forced smile. “Will you marry me?”

Sniper opened his mouth to reply but… nothing came out. This was… unexpected to say the least, he hadn’t even _considered_ marriage and… it was a big thing.

“I-it’s fine if you don’t want to.” What little amount of confidence Scout had managed to get back into his voice to pop the question was gone now. “I’m mean… there are tons of people who don’t want to get married for various reasons or… or maybe you’re just not ready yet and I’m just like… moving too fast or maybe you don’t…”

Sniper placed the ring box on the table and stood. He grabbed the front of Scout’s shirt, pulling him in for a kiss on the mouth before he could speak that thought allowed.

Scout melted into it, clinging onto Sniper as if his life depended on it. They only eventually separated because they needed to breathe again.

“Yes,” Sniper said in a whisper. “’Course I’ll marry you.”

“Oh thank god.” Scout let out a shaky sigh of relief, even his eyes grew wet. “I was… worried you’d say ‘no’. It… didn’t even occur to me until last night that you might. And then that thought kind of got stuck in my head and fucked me up a bit.” He wiped away his tears with the heel of his hand before they could properly spill out. “Sorry for all this, I’m just real tired and… happy and… relieved and stuff.”

“It’s fine mate. I… honestly hadn’t even considered… this.” Sniper picked up the ring box again and took out the engagement ring. It was a silver band with tiny diamonds set inside it. It didn’t look too fancy or expensive but Sniper didn’t know much about these things.

“Does it fit?” Scout asked. “I measured your finger while you were asleep one night, I’m not a hundred percent sure if I did it right though.”

Sniper slipped it onto his ring finger. “Like a charm,” he said, holding his hand up for Scout to see. It would take a while for him to get used to it being there but he already liked the sight and feel of it. It represented a lot.

They were going to get _married_. How had that become a thing so quick? He wanted to say something but… what could he say? He’d never been good with words. So instead he just hugged Scout, pulling him close and holding him, giving him a bit more time to finish recollecting himself. Actually, they could both use a couple moments to ground themselves. It couldn’t last forever though.

“We need to clean up the boxes,” Scout eventually said, ending it. “I don’t want your parents mad at me, especially when we tell them the news.” Right, they’d have to tell their parents now. “They’re scary.”

“They ain’t scary and they’re not going to be mad at you after you just proposed to me. But uh… we should clean up.” It was only the right thing to do.

After cleaning up they settled in the living room to wait for Sniper’s parents to come down. They sat on the recliner, Scout in Sniper’s lap, head resting on Sniper’s chest.

It wasn’t long before his breathing started to deepen, signaling he was drifting off. Sniper let him, he liked it when Scout slept on him and he needed sleep anyway. Sniper would join him but… he was _far_ too wide awake to fall asleep again anytime soon.

He lifted his ring hand to examine the ring again, he’d probably being doing that a lot for a while. It reflected the colourful lights from the Christmas tree. This was perhaps the greatest Christmas Sniper had ever had and it was still early morning.


	7. Scout/Engier - Christmas Tree

“It looks awesome,” Scout said as he looked over Engie’s latest invention, genuinely impressed. It was a big metal Christmas tree, complete with coloured light and baubles and a big shiny star on top.

Engie grinned at the praise. “It does stuff too.” He pressed some buttons on his remote and several of the branches on one side shot an array of bullets into the training dummy he’d placed there. That explained why they were in the shooting range at a safe distance and why Engie had placed four training dummies around it.

Scout couldn’t help but let out laugh. “I swear to god, you’re the only one crazy enough to ever weaponize a Christmas tree.”

“Nah, my dad did too. His only shot people though. Mine does other things.” He pressed some more buttons and a stream of fire engulfed another dummy on the opposite side of the one that had been shot. “And.” More button presses and explosive pills were shot out from another side. “And.” The final side shot out lighting.

“That’s _awesome_!” Scout had never seen something that could do so many things. How it worked was _beyond_ him but he loved it. “You going to bring it into battle? We’d whoop their butts with it for sure.”

“Uh… it’s not really portable, too heavy and too reliant on being plugged into everything. And it’s fragile, one good rocket shot its way and it would explode, killing everyone in its vicinity.”

“Oh uh… maybe not then.” Scout liked not being blown up. “It’s still cool though. How’d you make it?”

Engie launched into an explanation as Scout knew he would. Scout didn’t understand a lot of it but he liked listening to Engie talk about things he was passionate about, his inventions being one of them. Though, his understanding of all of it was improved by how long he’d known and been hanging out with Engie.

“…The hardest part was getting all the parts to work together without everything breaking but as you can see, I managed,” Engie finished. “But I ain’t shown you its best feature yet.” He pressed another button and the star on top of the tree started spinning and playing Christmas music, crystal clear too.

“Fucking wow,” Scout said with a laugh. “I love you, don’t ever change.”

“Thanks.”

Scout gave him quick sideways hug and kiss on the cheek. “Let’s go put it in the common room, everyone’s got to see it. Just like… make sure it’s not loaded or whatever, especially the explosives and flamethrower.”

“Yeah, probably a good idea.”


	8. Pyro/Scout - Holiday Homesickness

Pyro _loved_ Christmas. All the pretty lights and colourful decorations that _he_ got to help put up were _lovely_. He loved the Christmas music that played over the radio, filled with joy and holiday spirit. But despite how wonderful it all was, there was a problem. Scout wasn’t happy

He was good at hiding it, acting as loud and confident as ever. But he forced it a little too hard sometimes. Something was wrong. So…

Pyro went to his room and knocked on his door one evening after he’d gone to bed earlier than usual, a _sure_ sign that something was wrong. He was going to get to the bottom of this.

Scout answered after several seconds had gone by. “Hey pal, how’s it going?” he said as Pyro greeted him with a hug.

Pyro didn’t answer as he closed and locked the door behind himself. He took his gloves off and then his mask, followed by the rest of his suit. He was no longer afraid of taking it off around Scout and took advantage of that every chance he could. It was nice being able to take it off and not be lonely at the same time.

He then plopped himself on the bed, sitting crossed legged in the middle of it. “What’s wrong?” he asked, looking up at Scout who was watching him.

“Uh… nothing?” Scout replied with a shrug.

“Not true, you’re sad about something. What is it?”

Scout looked like he wanted to argue before sighing and sitting on the bed too, facing Pyro. “It’s not important and kind of dumb.”

If it was making Scout sad then it _was_ important, to Pyro anyway, and it wasn’t dumb. “Tell me.”

Scout looked to the side, rubbing his neck. “You’re not going to drop this until I tell you, are you?”

“Nope.” Pyro had already basically won this.

“Well uh… I’m just uh… kind of homesick I guess. Like… I know I get to go home soon for Christmas so it’s dumb. But… it’s normally around this time that I’d put up the tree and decorations up with my Mom and brothers. I know I helped do that here but… it’s not the same you know? We used to go caroling and stuff too. And Mom would always make a bunch of cookies. And there were all sorts of Christmas events stuff happening everywhere. It was… a lot fun and they’re all doing that stuff without me now. You have anything like that?”

“Uh… no. It sounds like a lot of fun though so of course you’re sad you’re missing it.”

“Yeah but… I’m going home in like two weeks. Yeah, I’m missing stuff but… it’s not like I’m missing Christmas. So I shouldn’t be all mopey and sad about it.”

Pyro had no experience with this type of thing so… what did he say to make Scout feel better? Was there even anything he _could_ say? “I think it’s okay that you’re sad about it. But can… can you tell me more about all that stuff? And your family?” Pyro had never experienced that kind of family life, he wanted to know more. “You don’t have to if it makes you too sad though. We can just cuddle and draw stuff instead if you’d rather do that.” Pyro would be happy with that too.

Scout smiled at him, a warm genuine smile. “Or we can do both. Cuddle and draw stuff while I tell you about how crazy stupid my family is about Christmas sometimes.”

“Okay.” Pyro clapped and gave him a brief but tight hug. “You sure?” he asked as Scout slid off the bed to get his sketchbook and pencils.

“Yeah, I like talking about that stuff. I think… that’s what I need right, you know? Just to talk about it all.” He sat back on the bed, leaning against the pillows stacked against the wall and headboard. He patted the space next to him, inviting Pyro to join him. As soon as Pyro did, he put an arm around his shoulders and kissed his cheek. “Thanks for like… you know, stuff.”

“You’re welcome.” Now it was Pyro’s turn to kiss Scout on the cheek. “Now tell me about your family Christmas stuff, I want to know everything.”


	9. Pyro/Demo - Secret Santa Gift Exchange

It was Scout’s idea to do a Secret Santa this year before everyone left base for the holidays. It was pure coincidence that Demo got Pyro, probably, Scout could’ve rigged it. It didn’t matter though, Demo had been planning to get Pyro a gift anyway, they were dating after all.

But even though he’d been planning on it, he wasn’t sure what to get. Pyro liked lots of things, soft things, things that exploded, things that set fire to other things, cute things, so on paper it was a simple task. But in practice that left too many options to chose from. What kind of gift would he like the _most_?

“Hey buddy, for this Secret Santa thing Scout’s having us do, what are you hoping for?” he asked one evening when Pyro was hanging out in his workshop as he put together explosives for tomorrow’s battle – the last one before ceasefire began for the holidays.

“Hmm, I don’t know.” Pyro shrugged. That was _real_ helpful. “What are you hoping for?”

Demo sighed, he couldn’t press for a better answer without giving away that he was Pyro’s Secret Santa. “Either a scarf, some fancy alcohol or both.”

“You drink too much.”

“Probably.” He’d cut back on it some though because Pyro didn’t drink – why was anyone’s guess but it might have something to do with the fact that he wasn’t mentally stable all the time and didn’t want to risk going on a drunken rampage of burning stuff down, or he just didn’t like to – and being the only one drinking when it was just two people was a bit awkward. “Whose name did you get?”

“Not telling, it’s a secret.” Of course, Pyro wouldn’t tell. “Don’t tell me yours either.”

“Wasn’t planning on it.”

They lapsed back into peaceful silence. Demo working on his stuff while Pyro looked at things, ready to be called to help with something if Demo needed him. Today he was examining the swords Demo had hung up on his wall for when he was in the mood for a good old-fashioned sword fight. … Maybe…

“You like them?” he asked, drawing Pyro’s attention again.

“They’re cool, can I hold one?”

“Go for it.”

Pyro clapped excitedly, even doing a little dance with his feet, before reaching up to pull one of the swords down. He thrust it out in an experimental lunge, his stance was all wrong as was the way he held the sword but his earnestness as he swung it through the air was endearing and lovely to see as always.

This wasn’t the first time he’d taken an interest and played with Demo’s swords either. He always asked permission before doing so which was sweet. Maybe… he’d like a sword of his own?

 

“A… rainbow hilt, you _sure_ about that?” the blacksmith asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked at Demo.

“Yep, it’s a gift for me boyfriend, he likes rainbows,” Demo explained.

“Okay then, whatever you say.” The blacksmith shrugged. He was reliable, he’d made all of Demo’s swords, he’d get the job done right.

 

“All right, it’s time to do the Secret Santa thing,” Scout said after he’d gathered everyone into the common room. “I guess I’ll go first since this was my idea and all.”

Turns out his gift was for Sniper, it was an ugly Christmas sweater. Then it was Sniper’s turn, his gift was to Heavy, it was a bottle of vodka, the kind he liked. Heavy’s gift was to Demo. It was a hat, a nice hat.

“Thanks, ‘preciate it” he said, meaning it. He plopped it onto his head, it fit too, _nice_. “Now it’s my turn.”

He bent down and picked up the wrapped box at his feet. Inside was the short sword he’d picked up from the shop just yesterday. “Darling,” he said as he walked up to Pyro with it.

Pyro gasped and clapped his hands and saying something that was lost in his mask before accepting the gift. He lay it down on the table and eagerly tore into the wrapping paper. He gasped again when he opened the box.

“Well would you look at that,” Engie said with a chuckle, looking over his shoulder. “A rainbow sword.”

Demo had even managed to get the sheath coloured rainbow. “You like it?”

Pyro threw his arms around Demo, giving him a tight hug. “I love it.” As long as he was pleased with the gift Demo was happy too.


	10. Pyro/Spy - Christmas Party

The party was bustling and loud. This was basically the last time they’d all be in same room together until after New Year’s so they were making the most of it. Pyro was making sure to socialize with all of them as much as he could because he was going to miss them. He’d be visiting France with Spy this year and was super excited about it but as always wasn’t looking forward to being separated from his friends for so long. He’d be okay though.

They had all already exchanged their gifts so now everyone expect for Pyro was drinking. He felt a little left out but he didn’t like the taste of alcohol and drinking too much made him sick. Not to mention he tended to set things on fire when he was drunk, that would ruin the party for everyone else. And drinking would require him take off his mask anyway, something he wasn’t ready for with everyone yet.

So, Pyro would be the ‘responsible’ one and make sure no one else set anything on fire or blew anything up while intoxicated. Just as long as no one expected him to drive them anywhere – he didn’t have a license and didn’t know how to drive – it’d be fine.

Scout was the first to leave the room. He rushed outside, leaving the door open. A few seconds later he could be heard puking his guts up in the bushes, making everyone in the room flinch in sympathy.

“I’ll go check on him,” Sniper said, standing as he put down his own drink. He was wobbly on his feet but didn’t look like he was going to fall over so Pyro let him go. In hindsight as the only fully sober one here he should’ve kept an eye on everyone to make sure they weren’t drinking too much.

Sniper returned a short time later with Scout leaning into him, arm thrown around his shoulder and looking miserable. “Guess we’re done with the party,” Sniper said. “See you later mates.”

“Let me check on him first, just in case,” Medic said, his speech slightly slurred.

While Medic did that, Pyro moved to sit by Spy again. Scout had inherited his low alcohol tolerance from Spy – assuming it worked that way, all Pyro knew was that they both had low tolerance for it – so if Scout had had too much, Spy was probably getting there too.

“You okay?” he said. He would’ve spoken softly but with the mask on it would’ve made it impossible for Spy to understand him.

“Doing great,” Spy said, slurring his words. “Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas. You should probably stop drinking now though.”

“I have no idea what you just said but I love you.” Spy tipped his glass in Pyro’s direction, a little wine sloshing out, before taking another long drink from it.

Pyro sighed and gestured to the glass in Spy’s hand before making an X with his hands. He then mimed putting a glass upside down on an invisible the table in front of them.

Spy tilted his head, squinting at him. “Oh,” he said after a second or two. “Nah, don’t worry about it or me.” He finished the rest of the wine in his glass.

He reached for the bottle of wine to refill it but Pyro pulled it out of his reach before he could grab it. Last time Spy had gotten this drunk he’d ended up vomiting, Pyro wasn’t going to let him subject that on himself again like he had the first time. Nobody liked puking, it was the worst.

Spy let out an exaggerated groan and flopped back into his chair. “You’re right Mon Cheri, thank you, love you.”

“I love you too.” Pyro gave him a sideways hug and would’ve kissed him if he wasn’t for the gas mask.

“Ugh, you guys are going make me vomit again,” Scout complained. Apparently, Medic was done making sure he wasn’t going to die of alcohol poisoning.

Spy chuckled evilly before getting to his feet. Pyro was about to protest him getting up right now but he sat right back down again in Pyro’s lap, sitting sideways. Always down for cuddles, Pyro put his arms around him, letting him lean into him.

“Better?” Spy said, turning his head to look at Scout.

“Ugh, no. Let’s go Snipes, I need to lie down and I don’t need to see my dad making out with his boyfriend’s gas mask.” Leaning on Sniper for support, Scout left again.

Spy laughed again, snuggling into Pyro. He mumbled something in French, Pyro didn’t need to know what it meant to know it was something sweet. Pyro patted him on the back.

“You guys is so sweet it’s giving me cavities,” Demo said with a chuckle.

Everyone else was looking at them too. Pyro didn’t mind but made a shooing gesture with his hand anyway. Spy was going to be embarrassed enough once he was sober again as it was, no need to add to it. With a shrug they all turned back to their conversations, leaving Pyro in peace to hold Spy while he drunkenly mumbled himself to sleep. Moving him to bed later would be hard but Pyro didn’t care, he liked this too much. And he’d get to tease Spy about this later, it was going to be great.


	11. Pyro/Medic - Christmas Morning

Today was Christmas. Medic didn’t want to get up yet though, mornings were the worst, holiday or not. But other than for himself, the bed was empty, no warm body snuggled up next to him or nearby.

With a groan he sat up, reaching for his glasses. “Pyro?” He looked around the room of the cottage they’d rented for the holiday. It too was empty, no sign of Pyro anywhere. He was undoubtedly off doing something, like looking at the Christmas lights they’d put around the house and on the little tree Pyro had cut down with his fire axe. So he was fine but now that Medic was sitting up, he wouldn’t easily be able to go back to sleep and he needed to get up anyway.

So he forced himself up and off the bed. Now he _could_ change into proper clothes or he could stay in his pajamas. … Pajamas, fuck getting dressed, he didn’t have work to do today anyway.

First order of business was to go to the kitchen and make coffee. He expected to run into Pyro on the way there through the living room or in the kitchen itself but… again he was nowhere to be seen. Where could he be?

It wasn’t until Medic was halfway through his second cup of coffee that he glanced outside and got his answer. It had snowed again last night, quite heavily as evidenced by how much snow was about. Pyro was running down a hill, pushing a snowball in front of him. It grew bigger as it gathered up more and more snow. Upon reaching the bottom of the hill, Pyro paused and pushed it a little to the side before starting to push it back up, still running but not quite as fast. Judging by the size of the snowball and the tracks it left in the hill, he’d done this several times already.

Medic sighed fondly and kept watching as he finished his coffee. Then he went back to the room to get dressed to go out into the snow.

“Hallo,” he called out as he stepped outside a few minutes later, closing the door behind himself.

Pyro looked up before sprinting over to hug him, almost tackling him to the ground. “You’re awake,” he said, his voice muffled through his mask when he stepped back.

“Good morning to you too,” Medic replied. “What are you up to out here?” It was cold but if it affected Pyro much in his fireproof suit, he didn’t show it.

“It snowed last night, so I’m making a snowman. Help me finish.” Pyro grabbed Medic’s hand and tugged him along into a half run.

He pulled them to a stop by two large snowballs, one slightly bigger than the other. He let go of Medic’s hand to grasp the smaller of the two, hefting it up and placing it on top of the bigger one. He mumbled too excitedly to be understood as he bent down to start gathering up another snowball, presumably for the head.

Once it was about the size of his fist, he straightened and handed it Medic. “Finish. I’m going go get the stuff for his mouth and eyes and stuff,” was probably about what he said before excitedly running off again.

_How_ he had so much energy this early in the morning was beyond Medic. But if it made him happy… Medic bent down to gather more snow to make the little snowball bigger. How long had it been since he’d last played in the snow? … A _long_ time that was for sure.

He’d just finished make the snowball big enough to act as the snowman’s head when Pyro returned, skidding to halt next to Medic. He held a little canvas bag in one hand, whatever was inside knocked audibly together. “Do it,” he said, gesturing to the unfinished snowman in front of them.

Medic obeyed, carefully but firmly placing the snowball on top. It was maybe a bit too small but Pyro didn’t seem to care as he clapped his hands together before reaching into the bag to pull out little buttons which he used for the snowman’s eyes. Next came the carrot nose and coal smile, along with three more coal pieces placed in its body down its middle. And finally, two sticks were placed in its sides to act as arms and hands.

“It’s cute,” Medic said, referring to both the snowman and Pyro’s excitement about it.

“Want to make another?” Pyro asked. “There’s plenty of snow, I’ve never seen this much before, and he needs a friend.”

“Sure.” There was no possible way Medic could say ‘no’ to him.

 

The next hour or so was spent making another snowman. As soon as the first snowball was big enough Pyro started rolling it along the ground with his hands, picking up speed until he was running around and around and up and down the hill with it. Just watching him was exhausting but he didn’t seem to tire.

While he did that Medic started on the middle bit, passing it along to Pyro when he returned with the bottom bit once it was big enough to please him. Medic’s hands were freezing and as he started on the head, letting Pyro run around and do his thing with the middle bit. His gloves weren’t meant for handling snow.

By the time Pyro returned, the head was done. And thus, it was only a minute or two before they had another complete snowman. Pyro clapped his hands in delight as he stepped back after putting the arms in place. It was a little bigger and had been placed next to the first, close enough that their stick hands touched as if they were holding hands.

“Very cute,” Medic said, giving his own little clap before going back to hugging himself and shivering. “Ready to go back in now?” Medic certainly was, it was freezing out here and the clouds rolling in suggested more snow might be on its way soon.

Pyro turned to face him, pausing before nodding. They went back to the cabin together and Pyro split off to the room. He returned a minute or two later without his suit and with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders.

“It’s cold, sorry,” he said, pulling the blanket up to go like a hood over his head. “Change into dry clothes so we can cuddle? I’ll warm you up.”

“There’s nothing to be sorry for, it was fun.” Medic approached and gave him a quick kiss.  “I’ll take you up on the offer to cuddle though.”

Now it was his turn to disappear into the room. Still shivering he changed quickly, though not as quickly as Pyro – how did he do it _so_ fast? Upon returning to the living room Pyro was waiting for him holding two mugs of hot chocolate.

“Merry Christmas,” he said as he handed Medic one.

“Merry Christmas to you too.”

They sat down on the love seat, as close as physically possible and splaying the blanket over both their laps. Medic felt practically all warmed up already. He couldn’t remember if he’d ever had a Christmas morning as lovely as this before, getting out of bed had definitely been worth it.


	12. Pyro/Engineer - Christmas Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas! :)

As usual, Engie woke up before Pyro. He didn’t want to get up yet though, Pyro was warmly snuggled up to him – he wasn’t wearing his suit either, still a new development. But he had things he needed to get ready for today.

So, he carefully forced himself out of bed now lest he start drifting off again. Before leaving the room, he tucked Pyro back in and gave him a gentle kiss on the forehead.

First, he went to the garage to check over Pyro’s gift one last time – it was a new invention, he’d been making subtle tweaks to it ever since he’d finished it to make sure it would was good. Unfortunately, as much as he would like to he couldn’t test it one last time but it seemed to be as good as he was going to get it right now, if needed he could make adjustments later. So he put it in a box and wrapped it and then a put a bow on top. He carried it out to the living room and placed it under the tree.

Then he went to the kitchen to make breakfast. He wasn’t that good of a cook but he could make a decent plate of eggs with a side of Texas toast. Pyro didn’t drink coffee so Engie didn’t bother with that, he was already wide awake anyway, hard not be on Christmas day.

Now it was time to wake the sleeping dragon. He went back to his room. Pyro was still fast asleep, curled up around a pillow now.

Engie approached and gently shook his shoulder. “Merry Christmas, time to get up.”

Pyro groaned and stirred. “Merry Christmas?” he said, looking up at Engie, still mostly asleep.

“Yes, it’s Christmas and time to get up.”

Pyro paused for a moment before shooting upright, suddenly fully awake. “It’s Christmas.” He hugged Engie. “Merry Christmas.” He then rushed out the door.

Engie followed, smiling at his antics. “Let’s eat first buddy, then presents,” he said as he reached the living room where Pyro was already eying his present under the tree.

Pyro groaned and sighed with exaggerated impatience but ultimately followed Engie to the kitchen. He ate his breakfast rather quickly, Engie followed suit to please him and because he was excited for the presents too, both to see what Pyro had gotten him and to see Pyro’s reaction to his gift.

 “Gift time,” Pyro said as soon as they were finished. He put his plate in the sink and rushed back out.

Engie followed at a slightly slower pace. He almost bumped into Pyro upon reentering the living room. He was holding the gift he’d gotten for Engie. “You first.”

“Thanks,” Engie said, accepting it.

They sat on the couch, Pyro squirming with excitement. Engie unwrapped his gift, tossing the paper to the side for now. It was a carboard box. Inside was a knitted sweater, pulling it out revealed that it had a sentry gun on it.

“You made this?” Engie asked, not bothering to hide how impressed he was. He hadn’t known Pyro could knit.

“Yes.” Pyro beamed under the praise. “Spy helped me, he showed me how and made sure I didn’t mess up.” Good old Spy, helping his friends while still not wanting to admit he cared about them. “There’s more.”

After giving the sweater one last admiring look, Engie laid it to the side for now. Next, he pulled out a blanket, store bought and soft. It had a big letter ‘I’ on it followed by a heart and the silhouette of the state of Texas, essentially spelling out ‘I love Texas’.

“Like it?” Pyro asked, shifting excitedly. “I saw it and thought of you ‘cause you’re from Texas.”

“It’s wonderful.” Coming from almost anyone else it would’ve been a joke gift meant to be funny. Pyro was earnest though.

With a smile, Engie folded it back up and placed it to the side to pull out the last thing in the box. It was a teddy bear, it wore goggles not unlike his own and a hardhat – was ‘hardhat’ still the right word when it was a plush though?

“It’s cute,” Engie said with a chuckle. “Where’d you find it?”

“The gift shop it Tuefort. I found the blanket there too. It looks kind of like you, not as cute though, so I bought it for you.”

Engie blushed a little, though it wasn’t the first time Pyro had called him cute, nor was it likely to be the last. “Well, thank you, I love it, it’s wonderful all of it.” Engie placed the teddy bear top of the blanket and stood. “Now it’s time for your gift.”

He pulled the other gift out from under the tree and placed it on Pyro’s lap before sitting down again. Pyro clapped in wordless excitement before tearing into the wrapping paper.

In seconds he was opening the box and staring in amazement at the thing inside. “What is it?” he asked after several seconds, looking back up at Engie.

“It’s a jetpack,” Engie explained. “It won’t let you fly but you should be able to get some distance and height with it.” He’d had Demo help him test it – Medic had been there too in case it exploded which thankfully it only did once. Doing so while keeping it secret from Pyro had been difficult, they’d had to get Scout to distract him. “It’s the secret thing I was working on.”

Pyro carefully pulled it out of the box. “It’s amazing,” he said as he shot up to his feet. “I’m going to go try it.”

“Whoa, slow down there, cowboy.” Engie hopped up to his feet to block Pyro’s way to the front door. “Testing it here would get us in big trouble. Wait until we get back to the base.”

Pyro wilted. He didn’t even need to say anything, his body language said it all.

“Yeah, I know it sucks buddy. But it’s only about a week, you can wait that long, right?”

Pyro seemed to think about it for a little bit before nodding, straightening a little with a sigh. “I _love_ it, thank you.”

“You are very welcome.” Engie let out a sigh of relief. Maybe he should’ve given it to Pyro upon returning to base but it made for such a good Christmas gift.

Pyro placed the jetpack gently down on the couch. “This is the best Christmas ever.” He kissed Engie on the cheek and then hugged him. “Thank you, I love you.”

“Love you too,” Engie replied, reciprocating. It was certainly a great Christmas, no denying that. He couldn’t have asked for a better one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you enjoyed, please leave a comment.


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